On April 4, 1938 Mary E. Stovall and Mary W. Beatty read and copied the tombstones located in the Old Salem Cemetery. These cover pages 108 to 112 of the manuscript entitled, "Tennessee, Records of Madison County, Tombstone Inscriptions, Mrs. John T. Moore, State Librarian and Archivist, Works Progress Administration." As read:

[HTML Editor's Note: Jonathan Smith cut and pasted a reduced copy of the 1938 record when making his scrapbook manuscript. The material is rearranged slightly again in making the HTML file. Accuracy of 1938 page breaks noted below cannot be guaranteed.]

To the memory of Lucius, Son of Benj. R. & Emily E. Person
May 5, 1850
June 6, 1850
(Foot-mark)
L.

GREER

Pleasant, infant son of Alexander & Margaret Greer's
Born Nov. 3rd 1832
departed this life July 27, 1833
"Loving & beloved children
Your bodies sleep together in the dust
Your spirits mingle before his throne."
P.G.

(These twelve graves mentioned above are in one lot, enclosed in wrought-iron fence. These next four seem to be an addition, also fenced in. We discover that they mark the resting place of one Adam Huntsman and three wives).

HUNTSMAN

In Memory of Elizabeth, wife
of Adam Huntsman
Died 7th Jan. 1843
Aged 33 Years.

In Memory of Sarah W., wife
of Adam Huntsman
Died Oct. 1825
Aged 33 Years

In Memory of David Warlick
Born in Lincoln Cty. N.C.
Jan. 1st, 1800
Died May 14th, 1845

(This next grave with one more monument, appearing very old, only the base of which is left, completes this group).

(Page 7)

1938 Inscriptions, Page 110 continued:

JONES

In Memory of
Catherine Bevels, Consort
of Timothy P. Jones,
Daughter of Richard
& Sarah Fenner
Born in Franklin County, N.C.
January 6th, 1821
Died April 17, 1845
Member of the Episcopal Church

(This grave and the next are also covered with slabs, which were partly buried and entirely over-grown. They are obviously the only ones left of many in this group; signs of a brick wall and sunken earth show that there are other graves).

Sacred to the Memory of Atlas Jones
January 18th, 1782
November 17th, 1841
A native of Massachusetts.

Mary A. Brown, Dau. of
Robert & Susan Brown
Sept. 8, 1836
Mar. 13, 1853
"It was an angel that
visited the green earth
and took a flower away"

RAINEY

Martha O. (or D.), wife
of W. B. Rainey
May 10, 1814
Mar. 29, 1840

PAVATT

Margreth Pavatt
Died Aug. 27, 1841
Aged 57 years

(Page 8)

1938 Inscriptions, Page 111 continued:

BETTS

Elmina L. Betts
Dec. 9, 1322
Oct. 5, A.D. 1835
Aged 2 Y. 9 M. & 26 D.

ROGERS

In Memory of H. Rogers
Born ____ 16, 1778
Died ____ 10, 1842
(This stone is almost entirely gone; marker in half.)

112

BROWN

Infant dau. of
Robert & Susan L. Brown
Born dead Oct. 13, 1841
"Budded on earth to bloom in heaven"

George Washington Brown, Son
of Robert & Susan L. Brown
May 14, 1848
July 7, 1848
"Sleep on, sweet babe, and
take thy rest, God called
thee home. He thought it best.
(They are side by aide)

HENDERSON

M. E. Henderson
July 19, 1844
Oct 18, 1920

Markers:
Mother
Father
Brother
Brother

(Thin is a low walled-in lot, with graves caved in and overgrown with trees. There is a large, modern monument at one end of the lot, bearing above inscription. Lot about 12' by 20'.)

The typing is quite dim on the 1938 inscriptions pages but they merit presentation as representative of the tombstones in the cemetery in 1938.

ATTENTION, — All who have friends or relatives buried at Salem Cemetery, three miles east of Jackson, are invited to meet there Thursday morning, 15th of May, by 8 o’clock, with spades, saws, hatchets and bandsaws, for the purpose of building a fence around the graveyard. Those that can't come in person, are requested to send a good hand to represent them. By order of the trustees,

Jas.BLACKMON,
Robt BROWN
Jno ANDERSON

WHIG-TRIBUNE, Jackson, May 10, 1873

Some of the editorial staff of the WHIG-TRIBUNE wrote in its October 14. 1871 issue of the old camp-meetings that "were always associated in our mind with potato pie, cold chicken. barbecued pig, and sweet cakes and well do we remember with what fondness we looked forward to those happy gatherings when a boy. The good old fashioned hospitality, the kindly smiles and cordial hand shakings with which all were greeted went a long way in those happy times bringing 'sinners to repentance.'"

In his book, THE HISTORY OF A COMMON SOLDIER OF THE ARMY LIFE IN THE CIVIL WAR 1861-1865 (published 1920), page 119, Leander Stillwell, who fought "at Salem," Dec. 1862, wrote that after the Federals had withdrawn towards Jackson, of which his unit (51st Illinois Inf.) was a part, "Reinforcements soon came out from Jackion and then the whole command advanced, but the enemy had disappeared. Our regiment marched in column by the flank up the road down which the Confederates had made their charge They had removed their dead and wounded, but at the point reached by their head of column, the road was full of dead horses."-Also page 116, "The cemetery /Salem/ was thickly studded with tall native trees and a few ornamental ones such as cedar and pine."

In a conversation with Malcolm D. Wilcox, Sept. 4, 1995, he told the writer (Smith) that the five grave-markers placed near the cemetery gate simply marked as "unknown" Confederates (C.S.A.), are placed as commemorative stones, indicating the sacrifice of Confederate losses at the military engagement at Salem Cemetery, December 19, 1862. As Stillwell noted in the quotation, above, from his book, the Confederates had taken advantage of the Federal haste and withdrawal (temporary as it was) to remove their dead and wounded. Any Federal dead would surely have been buried in the soldiers' cemetery located near the old Union University campus in Jackson (and the remains from that cemetery were removed after the war to an established federal cemetery in Mississippi).